The Promise
by Mengde
Summary: Korra and Asami: a relationship forged in fire and strife. Their first true test, however, comes not from without, but instead from a promise Asami vows to fulfill for Korra. Where will this promise carry them, and will they still recognize themselves when they arrive?
1. 零

My name is Mengde, and I don't own the world of Avatar or its characters. But we knew that.

This is a Christmas present for my best friend, the very talented VulcanElf (whose page you should visit if you like FFVII). I am posting it in its entirety, rather than piecemeal, because it is meant to be read in one sitting. It just happens to have multiple chapters.

The chapters begin at 0 and end at 6. The characters at the start of each chapter are simply numbers.

Enjoy.

* * *

><p>零<p>

_Dying never seemed real to me until now._

She could feel the shrapnel, or at least she imagined she could. By this point she was beyond pain, beyond any sensation but the creeping numbness and chill of blood loss. Her vision was growing dark around the edges.

But she'd made a promise. Her legs still worked, for the moment. And if they stopped, if she couldn't walk, she would crawl.

She'd made a promise.


	2. 一

一

Avatar Korra exploded into the control room of Kuvira the Great Usurper's Death Walker, all four elements curling around her in preparation for battle. "Kuvira! You'll never get away with this!" she cried.

Kuvira grinned wickedly from atop her iron throne, surrounded by a nest of sinister levers to control the platinum beast. "It's far too late for you to stop me, Avatar! I'm not a fool; I launched the attack on Republic City _and_ the Fire Nation _and _Water Tribe _and _Air Nation capitals _thirty-five minutes ago!_"

The Avatar fell to one knee, shock from the revelation striking her like a blow. "No! That's not true! That's impossible!"

"And what's more, I have your one true love at my mercy! Behold!" With a wave of her hand, Kuvira metalbent the lever to trigger the door at the far side of the room. It rose to show Asami, dressed in a revealing slave-girl's outfit, her wrists and ankles in shackles and chained to the wall.

"Bow to me," Kuvira laughed. "Bow, or this is the last you will see of your precious Asami ever again!"

"Korra, don't listen to her!" Asami shouted. "I'll be fine! You know what you have to do!"

"I can't!" Korra screamed. "I love you too much! I have to bow to her!"

Kuvira threw back her head and roared with laughter as Korra collapsed to the floor, kowtowing to the Great Usurper.

"CUT!" Varrick called. "Good work, people! Heck of a cliffhanger to end the episode on!" He twisted around in his director's chair to look at his guests on set, the expression on his face equal measures expectation and pride. "So, what do you think? I'm ready for your honest praise!"

The _actual _Avatar Korra and Asami gave one another a sidelong look. _Who's going to break it to him?_

Asami spoke first. "This is completely inaccurate."

"Totally," Korra agreed.

Varrick's expression fell. "Oh?"

"I mean, let's put aside the fact that the walker's control room looked nothing like this," Korra said as she gestured at the set. "There wasn't any throne. And you have, what, a hundred levers there? I remember there being… maybe _eight._ But putting aside that fact. Asami never got captured by Kuvira."

"But it's more dramatic this way!" Varrick insisted. "You, going to rescue your girlfriend!"

"I spent the first part of the battle in a hummingbird suit," Asami said. "After my father triggered the ejection system, I spent the rest of it running thirty blocks to get back to where the spirit portal eventually opened." She looked at Korra again, unable to keep a smile from her face. "And I wasn't her girlfriend _yet_."

Varrick crossed his arms, obviously upset. "Listen, I understand that _maybe _this isn't one hundred percent absolutely faithful to what really happened. But people saw you fighting Kuvira together, they saw you _together _together afterward, they made assumptions! It's much harder to write you two getting together after the fact than just assuming you've been together the whole time!"

Korra rolled her eyes. "So what you're saying is that it's too hard to write movers so they show what actually happened."

"Exactly! There are _rules _you have to follow! Damsels in distress, rescues, people expect certain things!"

Shrugging, Asami indicated the set. "Look, Varrick, we're not going to tell you to stop making these. People can believe what they want, that won't change the facts."

"Exactly," Korra agreed. "But maybe don't expect us to come to the premiere."

"Well, fair's fair. It was nice of you two to come by, anyway."

"Of course," Korra told him. "How's Zhu Li?"

"Doing the thing," he replied, naturally. "Nobody else could manage Varrick Industries while I concentrated on my mover art."

Korra raised an eyebrow as she watched a crew of stagehands unshackle the actress playing Asami from the wall and give her a robe to cover her slave-girl costume.

"Yep," she said. "Art."

* * *

><p>"It's amazing how he can be so progressive and so backward at the same time," Asami observed later that night.<p>

Korra shrugged, keeping the motion minimal so it wouldn't disturb the fur blanket covering the two of them. "Varrick means well, I guess. It's not like we've kept this a secret or anything."

Asami was warm against her, pressed close to combat the chill of late autumn, so Korra both felt and heard it when she laughed. "No, we haven't. Remember Mako's face the first time he realized what was going on?"

Now Korra laughed, too. "Yeah. Kind of like a deerlion caught in the headlights. Like, _oh. Am I still here? Should I still be here?_"

"It was good to see him again, though."

"Yeah. It was."

The thought of Mako refused to go away, though, worming its way into Korra's mind. "Asami, I'm sorry," she whispered.

She heard Asami's breathing hitch at the unexpected change in her tone. "For what?"

"Everything that happened with him. Me messing with your relationship, and dating him so soon after you two broke up, and all that stuff when I lost my memory…"

"Shh." Korra felt Asami put gentle pressure on her shoulder, so she rolled over, bringing the two of them face-to-face. There was no real light to speak of, this late at night, but Korra still hid her face in the pillow, ashamed of the tears which had suddenly appeared in her eyes.

"Listen to me, Korra," Asami murmured. "When I told you, at Varrick's wedding, that you had nothing to apologize for – I meant it. You have _nothing _to apologize for. All of that is in the past. Whatever mistakes we made, whatever terms our friendship started on, that's past us now. All of those choices and those consequences, all of them led us here. To each other."

Korra stiffened, but just for an instant, as Asami wiped the tears from her face for her. She wondered how Asami had known she was crying. She was sure she hadn't made any noise; she'd borne the sudden weight of emotion and regret as stoically as she could. Then she let the bemusement pass as the other woman began to kiss her – softly, at first, but as she allowed herself to relax into the moment, Asami grew more insistent.

_Of course she knew I was crying. She's Asami. She knows me better than anyone, now._

It was some time before they spoke again. When they did, it was Korra who went first. "I need you to promise me something," she said, her arms wrapped around Asami's slender frame. "Can you?"

"Of course." Asami's breath was warm on her neck, her head cradled in the crook of Korra's shoulder.

"You don't even know what I'm going to ask."

"I don't need to. You're the one asking. It's one I know I'll be able to keep."

Korra smiled, pulling Asami closer to her. "Okay, then. It's going to sound sad, and scary, but. Since you said you could." She took a deep breath.

"Please promise that you won't let me die alone."

There was a moment of absolute quiet. "Not what I was expecting," Asami said at last.

"I know it wasn't."

"But that's fine. I promise."

"You do?"

"Of course." Asami closed her arms a little tighter around Korra's waist. "You're stuck with me, Avatar Korra. It's no skin off my nose to make a promise I was already intending to keep anyway."

Korra opened her mouth, then closed it. There really was nothing else to say.


	3. 二

二

"It shouldn't be this _hard!_" Korra fumed.

Outside the cockpit of the hummingbird suit Korra was currently doing her best to control, Asami shrugged. "Korra, you have never been good with technology," she called up. "The first time I let you drive my car you nearly killed both of us. But we're not going to be able to hit the Kuvirites' fortress on Hei Shan by going up the side of the mountain. The whole slope is a deathtrap. We need the suits. Unless you want Rild to keep using the mountain as a staging area for terrorist attacks in Republic City."

Korra grimaced, clenching the twin flight sticks for the suit a little harder. "I'm not saying we don't need the suits. I'm saying it shouldn't be this hard to use them! I should be able to point it where I want to go and then just have it _go._"

"If wishes were ostrich horses then beggars would ride."

"I hate that expression. It's stupid. The suits are stupid."

"You're just saying that because we've been trying all day and you're frustrated. Or do you really think the design I spent a year perfecting is stupid?"

A wave of guilt instantly struck her. "I'm sorry, Asami. You're right. They're not stupid, they're great."

She relaxed as she saw Asami give her a knowing smile from the hangar floor. "Relax. I know you didn't mean it. Now try again. Remember to use the rudders, they're important for stabilization."

"Right." Korra gave a tug on the control sticks, pulling them toward her to arch the hummingbird suit's chassis backward. It began to rise, buoyed by its wings. The machine threatened to careen into one of the hangar walls, but Korra kept her feet firmly on each of the rudders, stabilizing its orientation. She eased up on the sticks when it was ten feet off the ground.

"Good job!" Asami shouted over the noise of the wings. "You're getting a feel for it! Now take it out!"

"Alright!" Korra replied, pulling the switch to close the cockpit pane now that she was in the air. Feeling ecstatic that she was finally making progress with the suit, she pushed hard on the sticks.

The suit went from upright to face-down in half a second and slammed into the hangar floor.

The impact triggered the ejection mechanism. Korra felt her stomach jump down into her boots as booster rockets in her chair fired, throwing her free from the suit and into the ceiling thirty feet up before she could disengage herself from the pilot's seat. The back of her chair pressed against the ceiling; the thrust from the booster rockets then sent her rushing along the length of the hangar until she collided with the far wall.

Finally, the fuel in the rockets expired and she started to fall.

* * *

><p>Asami saw the whole disaster in slow motion. The instant the hummingbird suit hit the ground, she knew for a certainty that the ejection system was going to fire. Even as she began to rush forward, she watched Korra explode out the back of the suit, hit the ceiling, and start traveling along its length.<p>

Her heart pounding, her mind vacillating wildly back and forth between detached amusement and abject terror, Asami sprinted after Korra. As the booster rockets in the seat finally died and Korra began to plummet, Asami threw herself into a skidding dive for the last eight feet, trying to break Korra's fall with her own body.

A moment before she hit the ground, Korra conjured up an enormous blast of wind that not only stopped her downward momentum but landed her on her feet.

Asami lay there for a few more panicked heartbeats, wondering what had happened, before realizing how stupid she had to look. Korra was the Avatar, a master bender. Had she really thought that a fall from thirty feet up would have posed even the slightest real danger?

"Are you okay?" Korra asked, concern gripping her face and voice. She slipped easily out of the harness attaching her to the seat before offering Asami a hand up. "Why'd you do that?"

"I. Ah." Asami let Korra pull her to her feet, allowing herself to enjoy the small thrill which shot through her at the effortlessness of the movement on Korra's part. "I thought I needed to help break your fall."

For a moment they said nothing, hands still clasped; then, Korra started laughing. Asami began to say something, to defend herself or at least try to take the edge off of her embarrassment, but a second later the laughter rose up inside her as well. She made no effort to restrain it. The two of them stood there, laughing at the absurdity of the situation, releasing all their nervous tension, simply letting themselves exist in the moment.

"You're cursed," Asami finally managed to get out. "Avatars must just not be allowed to operate machinery. It has to be a rule."

"Must be," Korra replied, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "Anyway, they're two-person machines. I can just be in the co-pilot's cockpit."

Asami pursed her lips. "We only went two to a suit in the battle against Kuvira because we needed someone to operate the plasma saws. It makes more sense for everyone involved in the assault to take their own suit. One stray boulder has less chance of knocking out multiple people that way."

"We may just have to be the exception. I don't think I'm going to be able to fly one of these things well enough for battle – not by tomorrow night."

With a sigh, Asami let go of Korra's hand. She started walking toward the downed hummingbird suit, throwing up her arms. "Fine. Years from now they're going to talk about the Great Battle of Hei Shan, where Avatar Korra got killed by a random boulder because her pilot wasn't good enough."

She stopped in her tracks as Korra caught up to lay a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't talk like that. You invented these things, nobody flies them better than you. We'll be fine."

Asami turned to face her. "I'm sorry. I'm nervous. And –" She stopped, her throat tightening. How was she going to say this without hurting Korra? Could she even say it?

Tilting her head just slightly, Korra smiled. "What?"

Asami's throat eased. This was Korra. She would understand.

"Ever since you asked me to make that promise a few months ago, I've – I don't know, I've been nervous. I was happy to make it, but I'm afraid I've called bad luck to us. You know?"

Korra shook her head. "Asami, I didn't ask you to make that promise so you'd worry. Listen. To get back into the spirit world, I needed to stop being afraid of what could have happened and accept what _did _happen. Zaheer showed me that. And when I got to that place, I realized that what I had been truly afraid of wasn't death. That scared me, but not as much as dying alone.

"Then, when we…" She colored, just a little bit, and Asami had to quash the sudden urge to grab her by her shoulders and kiss her. This was important, and she would hear it through. "Well, when we were in the spirit world, and we first – ah, you know what I mean – I realized that it wasn't just dying alone that scared me. It was not having you there. So that's why I asked you to make that promise. Not to keep me from dying – that's impossible. Just to be there when it happens."

Asami pulled Korra into a hug. "You realized that when we first made love?"

The other woman stiffened, and when Korra withdrew Asami saw she was red with mortification. "I mean, yes. I just – I've never said that before. It's embarrassing."

Taking Korra by the chin, Asami pulled her face to her own. "I could never be embarrassed by you. Don't think about it for a second."

There was silence for a few long and enjoyable moments, but it was interrupted all too soon by someone loudly clearing their throat.

Asami straightened up. "General Beifong. Nice to see you."

Suyin Beifong gave the two of them a wry smile before moving farther into the hangar. "Sorry to interrupt what is clearly a very intense training exercise. Can Korra fly one of these things yet?"

Korra shook her head. "Nope. Don't think I ever will, either. Asami's just going to have to fly one for the both of us when we go in tomorrow night."

"Too bad you couldn't get Zaheer to teach you the secret of flight," Suyin said. "We might have knocked a few centuries off his sentence if he had."

"I already know the secret," Korra replied. "It's in the ancient Airbender teachings. You have to let go of all earthly desires, enter the Void completely. And I know I can't do that." She looked at Asami, who immediately felt her breath catch. "I never can."

"I may just throw up, you two are so adorable," Suyin sighed. "Alright, you can fly in together. Now, it's late. Go get some sleep."


	4. 三

三

The sharp rocks of the cliff face dug painfully into Korra's fingers as she hauled herself up from a sheer, two-thousand-foot drop.

"I guess we should have done more actual sleeping last night," she panted as she finally flopped onto solid ground. "Maybe you would have dodged that giant rock if you were better rested."

Asami, who had pulled herself right up next to Korra, turned her head just enough to stick her tongue out at her. "I'm sorry that we nearly died because I got the timing of my roll wrong. There, I said it. But we're still here, and as we're still here I officially regret nothing."

"Me neither." Korra dragged herself to her feet, helping Asami up afterward. It was cold up here on Hei Shan, the wind like razors and the air bitterly thin. The night sky was clear of clouds, which made it easy to see by moonlight, but it also meant their approach would have been seen even if they hadn't crashed their hummingbird suit into the side of the mountain. Thousands of feet below them and many miles distant, the far-off lights of Republic City gleamed in the darkness. "Well, we are without a doubt inside the Kuvirite fortress's defense perimeter. You want to take the left half and I'll take the right, or stick together?"

Pulling her electroshock glove from her belt, Asami gave Korra a smile. "What do you think?"

"Fine. We'll stick together. But you'd better not slow me down, prissy rich girl."

Korra was expecting a wry retort. She was _not_ expecting Asami to clench her gloved hand until the copper fingertips detached, hanging loosely from metal filaments so thin they were almost invisible. She whipped them around over her head, the filaments suddenly extending to more than ten feet, and sent them hurtling bare inches past the side of Korra's face.

There were the sounds of an electric discharge and a cry of pain. Korra turned to see the Kuvirite soldier who had been crawling down the side of the mountain, spider-like, hit the ground with a satisfying crunch. An electric corona still surrounded his metal breastplate.

"Don't slow _me _down, Avatar," Asami said, smiling coyly. She pressed a button on the back of her glove; the metal filaments retracted almost instantly, snapping the fingertips back into place. "I've made some improvements to the design."

"_You're _an improvement to the design," Korra said. "Okay, no. Sorry. That was a bad comeback."

Asami laughed. "Let's storm the fortress already and find Rild. The sooner we do that, the sooner we'll forget how bad that was. Deal?"

"Deal."

The fight did not last long, between the two of them. The Kuvirites were fanatics, dedicated to continuing their defeated leader's fight for a conquering Earth Empire, but none of them had the fallen dictator's bending skill. Their fortress's main defensive advantage had been the sheer and deadly approach up the side of Hei Shan – an approach which the hummingbird suits had entirely obviated. Once inside, Korra and Asami made quick work of the Kuvirites, moving from room to room with practiced efficiency. By the time the rest of the strike force landed their suits, the battle was, by any reasonable definition, over.

Except for the troublesome fact that Rild was nowhere to be found.

* * *

><p>"I feel like the rest of us didn't even need to show up," Suyin observed as she stepped over the unconscious bodies of half a dozen men. Her metalbender corps followed her, moving quickly and efficiently to secure the prisoners.<p>

Korra shrugged easily. "Look, you guys diverted about a dozen boulders. If you hadn't been there, _every single one of them _would have hit us. What with the way Asami was flying."

Asami gave her a hard slug in the arm. She knew that Korra was never going to let her live this down. "Water tribe bumpkin."

"Republic City trust-fund queen!"

"If you two don't stop being adorable I _will _put you under military arrest," Suyin warned them. "I swear, if Lin were here she'd have just killed both of you already."

One of the metalbenders spoke up, saying what Asami had been thinking for some time now. "General, there's no sign of Rild. Intel said he was going to be here tonight."

Suyin turned to face the man. "What? We let this place stand for three months so he'd meet the other cell leaders here and we could take it with the hummingbird suits! He _has _to be here!"

Asami frowned. It was definitely unusual for intel to screw up this badly. The Earth Kingdom still bore the legacy of the Dai Li, and their spy networks – the source of this information – were second to none. Before she could open her mouth to say anything, though, she noticed Korra closing her eyes.

The Avatar took a deep breath before slamming her foot into the ground. She stood stock still for a moment, and Asami knew Korra was feeling the vibrations she had sent through the mountain peak. She could see Korra's eyes moving behind their lids, the vibrations painting a picture there –

"We've been played," Korra said, her eyes snapping open. "This entire place is wired to explode."

Asami felt her jaw drop. For her part, Suyin gaped at Korra for a half-second before slamming her own foot against the ground to read the vibrations herself. "You're right. We're leaving, _now!_" She rounded on her metalbenders. "Grab anyone in the fortress you can. We get to a safe distance, then after the explosives go off we search for survivors. This is not a suggestion, this is an order. MOVE!"

Without thinking, Asami grabbed Korra's hand as she began bolting for the exit. Fortunately, Korra clearly had no intention of protesting, because she bolted right along with her.

_It can't be like this. Not a bomb. Not like this, not after we finally –_

The fortress went up in a blazing inferno.

* * *

><p>"We know you fed us false information in an attempt to kill General Suyin and the Avatar. You can either tell us where Rild is now, or we can extradite you to the Earth Kingdom, where you can rot in a cell for the rest of your miserable life."<p>

The man Lin was raking over the coals was named Vaskin. He was allegedly a loyal citizen of the Earth Kingdom, working in the new government's intelligence division and liaised out to Republic City. In point of fact, he was actually a Kuvirite sleeper agent. All of this had already been established. Now all that remained was to determine how useful he could be before he was thrown into a cell and forgotten.

Asami watched from the other side of the one-way mirror. The interrogation room in Republic City's police station was harshly lit, and it was easy to see the quickly-crumbling expression on Vaskin's face. She was sure he would talk soon. "That was an awful lot of trouble he went to just to try to kill us," she murmured.

Next to her, Korra shrugged. "I'm the Avatar. I'm used to people wanting me dead for no reason other than who I am."

"Fair. But Rild was willing to sacrifice all of those loyal men and women just for an outside shot at you and Su." She hugged her arms closer to herself. "It seems desperate."

"It _is _desperate. Rild knows the Kuvirite movement doesn't have any real chance now that there's a democratic government in the Earth Kingdom and Kuvira's behind bars. They're just a terrorist group, and he's the top one. He's not getting out of this with his skin, so he's doing everything he can to draw it out." Korra wrapped her arms around Asami. "I know it was a little close, in the fortress, but we made it out. We're fine, Asami."

"I know, but you're not wrong. It _was _close, too close." Asami shuddered, a memory rising unbidden to her mind's eye. Korra, prostrate, unmoving in the wake of the blast. For a moment, Asami had been certain, terrifyingly certain, that Korra was dead.

Then the Avatar had gotten up, shaken the dust of a thousand tons of exploded rock from her limbs, and helped Asami up. But the moment remained.

"I know what you're thinking," Korra's voice cut into her thoughts. "You're thinking about the few seconds I was out. Where you thought I was dead. But I'm not dead. Let go of your fear of what might have been. Accept what _is._"

Asami let a long breath escape her as Korra gave her a squeeze. "I know what you're saying, and I know you're right. I just… I know I made you that promise, Korra, but when we come so close to _actually dying _it's hard to feel like I'm up to keeping it."

"You were keeping it. We were together, the entire time." Korra carefully maneuvered Asami around so they were face-to-face, Asami still entwined in Korra's arms. "Look, I know it's dark and weird of me to say that it makes me happy that you were there when we almost died. But it did. I feel like, so long as I have you, I can deal with anything."

Asami shook her head. "It's not just dark and weird, Korra. It's – you're okay with the thought of dying, so long as it's with me? Don't you prefer the thought of us surviving? Of us continuing to survive, and being together? I'm not trying to upset you, I'm really not, but this has been eating at me. It means everything to me that you're more afraid of losing me or not having me with you than you are of dying, but it scares me how blasé you are about even the _idea _of death."

She swallowed, fighting back the incoherent tears that were threatening her. Right now, she needed to get this out. "My father died fighting Kuvira, Korra. He died a hero, he redeemed himself for all the terrible things he did. But don't you think I'd rather he still be alive?"

Before Korra could say anything, Asami disengaged herself from the other woman's arms, deciding that she would rather suffer in solitude through the breakdown she felt threatening. She rushed out the door, hoping she remembered where the nearest bathroom in the police station was.

* * *

><p>Korra rapped carefully on the bathroom door. "Asami?"<p>

"Go away. I don't want you to see me right now."

"Do I have to go away? Can I just stay on this side of the door and not see you?"

A pause. "Alright."

Korra let herself drop to the floor, ending up cross-legged as though she were about to meditate. "It's the men's bathroom anyway. I'd rather not go into one of those."

Another pause. "Well, nobody told me. There's no one else in here, anyway."

"That's good. I wouldn't want anyone to hear what I'm about to say." Korra took a deep breath, wondering how she could possibly convey her feelings using mere words. Being with Mako had been hard; they'd never been able to communicate or grow, after all. But being with Asami was different. If she had been in this position with Mako, she would have felt frustrated and angry at her inability to articulate her thoughts. At the moment, however, with Asami, she simply felt… determined. A little daunted by the problem the situation posed, certainly, but determined to make it work.

Asami was worth it, after all.

"After the Red Lotus, and Zaheer, and everything that happened – I was dead," Korra said, speaking slowly so she could organize her thoughts as she voiced them. "I was dead, and still walking – not even walking, for a long time there. But you never gave up on me. You reminded me what it was like to be alive. The reason I wrote you, and not Mako or Bolin, while I was trying to recuperate – well, they always wanted the best for me, and I knew that. But you were my reason to keep trying, Asami. You were the person I wanted to see again, to see smile. And it's really embarrassing for me to admit all of this, because even after all these months of being with you and trying to open myself up to you, it's hard for me to stop being an island. I've never been good at the spiritual or emotional aspects of being the Avatar, or even being a person. So I'm sorry it's taken me this long to come out and say all of this.

"I don't want to sound like I'm blasé about the idea of death. Of me, dying. I want to stay alive, I want to keep being with you. But it's just hard to be afraid of death when I've already been through it, and come back out the other side, thanks to you." She swallowed hard. _Don't back down now, Korra. You have never backed down from anything in your life, don't back down from this._ "I love you."

The door opened behind her. She looked up to see Asami standing over her, extending a hand to help her up. Her green eyes were red and puffy from crying, but she was smiling.

"I love you, too."

Korra kissed her, reveling in the knowledge that they had just come to their first trial and passed it – not effortlessly, certainly, but they _had _passed it, and that was all that mattered. Asami was all that mattered.

When they finally broke for air, some minutes later, Asami grinned at her and pulled her into a tight, insistent embrace. "So. I brought you back from the dead, huh?"

"Yes. You did."

"I always knew I was good."

They laughed at that, both of them shaky and exhausted and overwhelmed. "Well, Rild got away this time," Asami finally said, "but we should still celebrate being alive."

Korra cleared her throat. "Yes, but I'm pretty tired. And our room is all the way back on Air Temple Island."

Asami gave her a mock frown and halfheartedly cuffed her across the head. "There'll be time for that later. I mean we should go out and do something. We're tired, we nearly died last night, we should go and indulge in something frivolous and silly. There'll be time for life-affirming passion later."

They both stood there for a minute, entwined, silently thinking.

"Well, there _is _a mover theater only two blocks from the station," Korra said.

That made Asami laugh. "Admit it. You talked a big game about not going to the premiere when Varrick first showed us those things, but I knew I was right. You have a crush on actress-me."

"If it's true, I'll never admit it," Korra said. "And if it was true, it would only be because of how I feel about real-you-you." She paused. "And I'm pretty sure _you _have a crush on actress-_me, _so it's not like you have a leg to stand on."

"Fair enough," Asami said. "Fine. Let's go to the movers."


	5. 四

四

It was in the third act.

Asami had only ever seen a blurry photograph of Rild. He had distinctive features, though. Broad, square-jawed, flat-nosed. Eyes like coals, burning in his face, even in a picture.

It was in the third act, after Avatar Korra defeated the Great Usurper. As she metalbent away Asami's chains and kissed her, Rild stood up in the third row of the theater. He turned to face the two of them, raising his arms, and Asami recognized him. He had a small, cylindrical device in one hand.

She saw Korra try to lash out with an air funnel, to rip the object out of his grasp, but even she couldn't do it in the half-second before he pushed down on the top of the cylinder.

He exploded.


	6. 五

五

The theater had been large. Multi-tiered. Whatever had been in the explosive Rild had strapped to himself, the very foundations of the building had been torn up. Wings full of people had collapsed, the ceiling was caving in, and fires were spreading.

Asami had been sitting down. That meant when the shockwave hit, she had been crushed into the back of her seat, which went flying a moment later as it was ripped right off its stand. Korra, who had been standing up in an attempt to stop Rild from using the detonator, had been blown clear away. Asami had no idea where she was.

What was clear, however, was that Rild had not only used an extremely powerful explosive, but he'd also lined the explosive with metal shrapnel.

Asami groaned as she pried herself free from the remains of her chair. All around her, people were screaming, trying to pull themselves out from under piles of rubble, running for the exit. With a grunt, she forced aside a piece of metal scaffold that had half-collapsed on her. Her shirt was punched full of at least a dozen tiny holes, and her blood was already beginning to soak through it. She was not the only one in this condition, either. The various bystanders she could see, at least those who were still alive, all had telltale signs of shrapnel wounds.

But Korra. Korra had been standing. Korra had taken the brunt of the blast.

Choking back a cry as the first wave of pain slammed into her, Asami staggered to her feet. She was not going to lie down and die like this, not after everything that had happened. She was not going to let a damn terrorist's last act of vicious disregard for life beat her.

Her legs were already beginning to grow numb and heavy, but Asami forced herself to put one foot in front of the other, over and over. She ignored the heat of the flames surrounding her, the acrid stench of the smoke, the rapid ebbing of her life. Korra was in here somewhere, possibly trapped, probably unconscious. Maybe even already dead, but she refused to consider that. She refused to believe that Korra, after going through so much trial and hardship, could die to a single madman's petty spite.

She nearly lost her balance as some of the debris underfoot gave way beneath her weight, but she caught herself before she could fall over completely. As she staggered forward, Asami noted, in a detached sort of way, that she could no longer feel her fingers.

_Dying never seemed real to me until now._

She could feel the shrapnel, or at least she imagined she could. By this point she was beyond pain, beyond any sensation but the creeping numbness and chill of blood loss. Her vision was growing dark around the edges.

But she'd made a promise. Her legs still worked, for the moment. And if they stopped, if she couldn't walk, she would crawl.

She'd made a promise.

* * *

><p>The first thing Korra was aware of, after seeing the bright flash consume Rild's body, was the feeling of something cold and wet on her face.<p>

The last thing she remembered was throwing up an air barrier between her and Rild, having realized she was too late to stop the explosion. The barrier had clearly deflected the shrapnel and the worst of the blast away from her, because she was woozy and sore, but had only minor cuts and scrapes.

She opened her eyes, wondering if she was outside and it was raining. Asami's face, soot-stained and smeared with blood, greeted her. The other woman was smiling faintly, her expression distant.

"I found you," she whispered. "You're not alone, Korra."

Korra came fully awake.

The Avatar State fell on her like a wave. Her eyes shone. The fires teetering on the edge of going wild suddenly died, snuffed out. The pieces of heavy debris blocking the exits were crushed or thrown aside. The crumbling remains of the theater's ceiling exploded outward in a storm of wind, and Korra rose up out of it, buoyed on the air, Asami in her arms.

She landed, gently lowering Asami to the ground. "Asami, look at me," she said desperately, letting the Avatar State slip away. Asami's eyes were beginning to defocus, her breathing starting to slow. "Asami, look at me!"

Korra saw a flicker of recognition in Asami's eyes, a brief moment of contact.

"You made a promise," Korra whispered, wrapping her hands around Asami's own. "You made a promise to me, and you kept it. You made sure that I wasn't going to die alone. But it was wrong. It was wrong of me to ask you to make that promise. I asked because I was scared, and selfish, and you were too good not to say no. I'm sorry for that, Asami. I'm so sorry, and it's terrible that I can only say this now." She sucked in enough air to keep going, despite the sobs that were threatening her. "But I'm done. I'm done being scared and selfish. You brought me back so I could live my life, and I want to live that life with you. So now I'm going to bring _you _back."

This time, the Avatar State was not a wave. It was an embrace, comforting, familiar. Her radiant eyes looked straight through Asami's bleeding skin and fixed their gaze on the jagged, destructive shards of metal burrowing their way deeper with every labored breath.

She crushed them. She crushed them into themselves, compressing them over and over until they were smooth, rounded stones instead of cruel, slashing knives. With a thought, she drew thirteen gleaming spheres into the air, their passage outward entirely harmless. The thirteen stones slammed into one another in one sudden motion, becoming a single fist-sized orb of metal, before dropping lifeless to the ground.

There was no free-standing water within at least a mile. It made no difference. Korra drew it out of the atmosphere, the force of her will ripping the moisture out of the air and condensing it into a perfect orb of water; first, the size of her hand, then the size of her head, and at last the size of her torso. She suspended it between her hands, lowering it to rest gently against Asami's wounds. It began to glow, a soft, soothing light suffusing it, as Korra used its medium to pour her own energies into Asami.

With a gasp, Asami woke up.


	7. 六

六

Asami woke up again, the next day, in her hospital bed.

Korra was right there, passed out in a chair at the side of the bed. Asami's memory of the past day was hazy, peppered with periods of partial or a complete lack of consciousness, but she knew for a fact that Korra had gotten her here, sat down next to the bed, and refused to move.

"Korra," she murmured. "Wake up."

The Avatar came to with an entirely undignified snort. "Huh? What?" After a moment, Korra blinked away the confusion of the newly-woken and focused on Asami. "You're awake. How're you feeling?"

"Like I died," Asami replied hoarsely. "But then I lived to talk about it." She cracked a small smile. "Which is pretty appropriate, given the last things I remember you saying." Sitting up a bit more in bed despite the pain, she asked, "What ended up happening with Rild? I mean, we know he died, but – have Lin and Su reached any conclusions?"

"Their official position is that the mountain fortress and this attack were the last acts of desperate people," Korra replied. "As far as anyone is concerned, the Kuvirites are dead and gone." She grimaced. "It took too many innocent lives to do it, but what's done is done."

"Agreed." Asami laid her hands on top of Korra's. "So. I'm glad you're here with me. It seems like I've managed to keep my promise."

Korra blushed, just a little bit, but nodded. "Yes, but – I'm sorry I ever asked you to make that promise, Asami. I just – I was scared that things weren't going to last, or that I was going to lose you. I was being selfish. And I'm sorry. Again."

Asami shook her head, trying not to move her still-wounded body too much. "Korra, you're not going to lose me. I told you that night it was no skin off my nose to keep that promise, and I meant it. I may have lost a lot of _blood _keeping it, but that's nothing. Not when it comes to you. I also told you I love you, and I meant that too."

The expression on Korra's face – pure, unadulterated relief and joy in equal measure – was the most beautiful thing Asami could ever recall seeing.

"I love you, too," Korra said. "I have something for you." She reached into her pocket and withdrew a fist-sized metal sphere. "This is all the shrapnel I had to pull out of you. I thought – well, it's silly."

"I'm sure it isn't," Asami said. "What is it?"

With a grin, Korra took the sphere between her hands and began to mold it as though it were a lump of clay instead of steel. Asami watched, entranced, as the sphere ceased to be a sphere – and became a matched pair of what she recognized as Water Tribe betrothal necklaces.

"Can I ask you to take back the promise you made, and make another one instead?" Korra asked.

"Yes," Asami said, smiling.

"Even though," Korra continued, still grinning, "you don't even know what I'm going to ask?"

Asami pulled Korra to her and kissed her, just once.

"You're the one asking," she said. "It's one I know I'll be able to keep."

劇終

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading; I hope you enjoyed the piece. Due diligence compels me to note that there is an image on the tumblr of one "nncharlesz," apparently drawn by "Cheppo," that depicts Korra metalbending Asami a betrothal necklace. It's a lovely image and I enjoyed it greatly, but I will disclaim that I conceived of the ending of this piece before ever seeing that picture. All writers steal, but there is an exception to every rule. Take care!<p> 


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